Q+A: Security, Jobs and Politics in Iraq

March 18, 2005 — -- As the newly elected Iraqi government continues to sort out its leadership, how is life going for the average citizens?ABC News Correspondent Nick Watt answers your questions from Baghdad.

Cathie in Utah asks: I am a mom to a soldier, and a mom period, I wonder how safe it is for the average Iraqi child? I wonder how much safer they were before all this started than now with the constant attacks by insurgents. How do the kids handle all this uncertainty?

Nick Watt: Children are unquestionably suffering psychological trauma as a result of the ongoing insurgency. Psychologists who treat them have told us so. We spoke to one child who bought a toy plastic gun and really thought he could protect his mother with it.

As for safety, children run the risk of being killed by suicide bombers or other insurgents. I don't know of any cases where children have been specifically targeted. But last week when we were in Balad, north of Baghdad, an insurgent detonated his car bomb outside the house of an Iraqi army major. The major was not killed, but a number of children passing by on their way to school were killed. Such tragic incidents happen all too often.

Before the invasion children were safer. Saddam Hussein ruled this country with such an iron grip that there was little crime. However, a child would have to fear his parents being taken away by the secret police to never be seen again.

Taiki in Japan asks: Are the Iraqis suffering from lifestyle problems, such as a lack of more money than they did before the war?

Watt: Average salaries in Iraq have risen since the invasion. During the last years of Saddam -- largely as a result of economic sanctions imposed on Iraq -- doctors were, for example, being paid $1 a month as the economy went into a nose dive. Items we take for granted in the developed world were not available in the shops. Salaries have risen but unemployment is now very high. One of the main reasons you'll see 300 men standing in line to join the police the day after 100 would-be recruits were killed in the same spot is that the security forces are one of the few employers still hiring. An Iraqi cop earns $235. Not a lot, but it's a job.

The main lifestyle problems people face are lack of security and intermittent electricity.

Ann in California asks: My son, an infantryman, is being deployed to Iraq "mid-year" and anticipates a long deployment -- over 12 months. Do you see any signs that 2006 will bring a decrease in U.S. troop levels, i.e. is there a chance that the tempo of the training of Iraqi soldiers will pick up significantly?